🏃‍♂️ The “Race to Record” Your Deed

According to M.G.L. c. 183, section 4,

A conveyance of an estate…shall not be valid as against any person, except…persons having actual notice of it, unless it…is recorded in the registry of deeds for the county or district in which the land to it relates lies.

This statute, according to Land Court,

makes Massachusetts what is commonly referred to as a “race-notice jurisdiction,” meaning that the subsequent purchaser of property, who records the deed, will prevail over a prior buyer, who did not record, unless the subsequent purchaser has actual notice of the unrecorded transfer.

See Mitchell v. U.S. Bank NA, 2014 WL 1159707.